A/n: Hey everyone. Thank you so much for reviewing again Hyperfoxchild, and thank you Jingenji- yes I will keep it up, I always finish what I start, and yes Hyperfoxchild, they are plotting against us. Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter, where events take a turn for the... umm... okay, it's just going to be... interesting in this chapter...

Chapter 9: The Psychologist

The guard struggled up the rock wall of the cave. Mine tracks lay across the bottom of the chamber. The guard propped himself against the rocks and strained to pull out an arrow from the wall. He jumped back down to the ground holding the arrow in one hand. The guard snapped his fingers on the other, creating a sort of light so that he could examine his findings.

He swiped the edges of the arrowhead, his fingers rubbing off a black residue. Though its color was black, it was thick like blood. He laughed to himself as he saw the scenario play out in his head.

"He's powerful to have pierced the skin…" He muttered to himself. The guard discarded the arrow and searched for footprints on the dirty ground. He found more than he expected. The many footprints showed evidence of some sort of struggle. It seemed, however, that the many people who made these prints were all on the same side. The number of footprints was also very confusing. Many of them led off into separate directions. There was also the evidence of one lone man walking through, after the confusing mass had left. The guard wanted to be sure he was following the right path.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a strange device. The runes on it resembled the design of the ones from his ancient resting-place. When opened, the device looked similar to a compass that was absent of the directional markings, but the arrow was present and seemed to be working efficiently. It shakily pointed towards the rail tracks. The guard smiled and closed his device as he saw another lone man's prints running within the mine tracks. They disappeared a long ways down but it was evident that they had taken one of the mine carts. Why else would the mass of differently sized footprints disappear in one empty area directly next to the rails? Unfortunately the roadblock ahead would take a day to clear, and the guard was forced to walk on foot as opposed to this tunnel's previous travelers.

Navi quietly nudged Link's shoulder. Still he did not wake up. The little fairy looked back over at the sleeping girls and then resumed her attempt to wake up Link. She tugged on his sleeve, tickled his long pointy ears and even pulled his hair, but all the Hylian did was roll on to his side and go back to sleep. Navi became red in frustration.

" 'Navi!' " She mocked Link's command. " 'Be sure to wake me up quietly, it should be easy'… yea right bub. You're as easy to wake up as a zucchini on a hot summer's morn—eep!" Her squeal was muffled as Link quickly got up and covered the fairy with his large gloved hand.

"Hush…" He hissed.

"Hmmph, that's the last time I'm waking you up you lazy little—." Link squeezed her harder.

"Don't wake the girls." Link and Navi were both silent as they looked over at the three girls. Amy groaned and rolled over, but they all appeared to be deep in sleep. Link and Navi stealthily made their way up stairs. The Hylian looked back and made sure that the coast was clear.

"Link! Listen!" Navi squeaked, returning his attention back to her.

"What is it now Navi?" Link asked with a sigh. The fairy shook.

"No, I mean listen!"

"I don't hear anything." It wasn't until Link did hear something that he realized the music wasn't playing anymore.

"Gibdos!" Link exclaimed as the both of them rushed to the window. Another one groaned in response to the first as four mummy-like creatures drug themselves about the house, like a shark would its prey.

"Arian and the old man are still out there!" Link cried, hands clutching the windowsill.

"Well, no duh. They're obviously not in here. Sheesh, and you say I'm the one who states the obvious."

Link glared at Navi as a long silence fell upon them.

"Never mind. I just have to go out and find them before the girls wake up, no biggie." Link sighed and cracked his neck as he looked at the Gibdos, hungrily circling the house. "Besides, I still have the sun song."

"One problem Link…"

"What's that?"

"You'll be outside, which means that will make it night again…"

"And… oh…" Link began to say and then realized that Arian would not easily be found in the dark, and it was possible that this world wouldn't bode well with time manipulating songs, after remembering his last adventure here. To speed up nothing but the sun and moon could prove to be very dangerous in Termina.

"Well. Maybe I can dodge them… they are slow…"

"Sure, whatever."

Link ignored the sarcastic encouragement from Navi and slowly slipped out the door. Downstairs Amy awoke with a shock to the sound of a screeching Gibdo. She threw the covers off of her and jumped off her cot. She ran to the stairs as Aura and Naomi groaned and got up after being hit by Amy's beddings.

"What's the deal Amy?" Aura whined. She threw Amy's pillow to the other side of the room. Amy didn't respond but instead looked back to where Link had once been and cursed under her breath.

"The thief got away! I told you… There are probably minions of his circling the house!" Amy quickly ran up the stairs. Naomi and Aura looked to the other in confusion, wondering if this was a dream or if Amy's paranoia really did have reason, and then followed Amy soon after she had reached the top.

The screech of yet another Gibdo resounded and Link froze in mid-stride. Slowly, the creature of death dragged itself towards its life-filled victim. Navi frantically flew around Link as he fought against the ancient spell of the Gibdo. It drew near and became ready to bite, but Link broke from the invisible bindings and pulled out the dark sword. The mummy-like creature was sliced in two with a single, easy stroke of the blade. Link stared in amazement as he watched the creature, which had once been so hard to kill, struggle to right itself on the ground and then slowly break away into dust.

His attention span was thrown back on track as he heard a distant, and slightly muffled, deep-throated growl. Link looked towards the temple of Ikana Canyon. Large metal bars were laid across the gate into the castle and the small crack that had once been his way into the temple was now sealed. Link desperately looked for another way in after hearing another yelp. He feared that Arian might be in the midst of a battle and losing.

Amy looked out the window for the near eightieth time and sighed. Aura bit her lip, her mind deep in thought. Naomi dug through the many boxes to find the controls for the music box.

"There's nothing wrong with the gears in the basement that turn the wheel. They are all well oiled and are still turning easily. Right now I'm going to check the pipes and make sure that nothing's clogging them." Aura and Amy stared at Naomi in awe as the nimble little girl clambered up the boxes. "There's a loft up here." She exclaimed as she disappeared from Aura and Amy's sight. A long silence followed Naomi's disappearance.

"I found the problem!!" Naomi exclaimed from atop the loft. "One of the wires became exposed to the rainwater and it shorted out, but I think I can reroute the power through an extension. Hand me the pot with the copper handle." Amy continued to dumbly stare while Aura scurried to get the pot with the copper handle. Naomi's pale hand reached over the side of the loft and felt for the pot as Aura handed it to her. Aura then stepped back, next to Amy, and joined her in her dumbfounded stare.

"One more attachment and…" The music began with a roar. Naomi squeaked and her two friends soon saw her coming down from the loft with a crash, back into the boxes.

"Oh my, it was loud up there…" Naomi said with a blush. Aura and Amy quickly grew worried faces as they saw a large rod falling from the ceiling.

"Look out!" Aura exclaimed. Naomi rolled out of the its way and caught it before the rod smashed any more of the old man's belongings.

"It's a staff…" Naomi stated after examining her discovery. She felt the strange carvings that had been embedded into the wood and stared in wonder of the strange deep blue metal that was twisted around the wood.

"That's nice, but right now we need to find those traitors." Amy said darkly. All three of them stared out the window as the mummy-like creatures were engulfed into the ground.

"You mean those traitors?" Aura chimed, looking out the opposite window. Amy and Naomi quickly looked in the direction that Aura was indicating. Sure enough Link and Arian were running back towards the music box. Arian glanced behind him and slowed down but Link continued to run all the way to the door. Amy angrily opened the door and let the mud-covered Hylian inside. Arian shortly followed, just as dirty, but he seemed even more ragged than Link did.

"You're hurt!" Naomi gasped. Arian looked down at his arm to see a rather serious gash. The feeble cloth that he had used to hold it together was now drenched in blood and falling off. Aura seemed worried too and quickly set some water on the stove and began preparing some other things to clean the wound. Naomi scavenged for some dressings to place on it.

Amy glared questioningly at Link. The Hylian's eyes glanced fretfully at Amy and then back to the dazed Arian.

"I'm going to go clean up in the river." Link said after Amy's suspicious glare became to annoying for him to bear. Amy seemed about to follow him but Naomi's voice called her back.

"Amy, I need you to start making some food if you could. I'll get you started, I just want you to watch it and tell me when it starts to boil." Amy walked monotonously back to the fireplace and began to watch the pot of vegetable stew that Naomi had so quickly prepared. She had also already set Arian down in a seat and gotten Aura to soak some cloths in the hot water to clean his wounds. Naomi was about to start looking for some bread when she and Amy heard a loud commotion behind them. They turned to see that Arian had jumped up on the table and was continuing to back away from Aura. The poor girl stood stunned, still holding the wet cloth she was going to use to clean his wounds.

Aura passed him a confused look but continued to try and wash his wounds. As her hand came near to him, Arian jumped, putting more distance between them. Naomi looked at Aura and back at Arian.

"Look," Naomi angrily said. "I don't care how tough you think you are! We're going to take care of that wound whether you want us to or not. And DON'T STAND ON THE TABLE!!!" Naomi yelled as she pulled Arian back down and forcibly put him back into a chair. She snatched the hot wash cloth from Aura and began to clean his arm. The mud washed off easily and Naomi soaked up most of the blood. She then heated a needed and boiled some thread that she had dug up.

"This is going to hurt, but I need you to relax as much as possible." Naomi ordered. Her serious and demanding tone did not falter. Aura began to step around the table in hopes of helping.

"Stop tensing up!" Naomi exclaimed. Her back was turned to Aura, and she was intent on holding his arm in place. Aura backed up a little.

"Thank you…" Naomi said with a sigh and continued her stitching. Aura looked at Arian. His eyes watched her strenuously. Every move she made, his eyes followed her in an almost fearful manner. Aura looked down and feared tears would come to her eyes.

Amy was now back to watching the pot boil and Naomi was intent on stitching up Arian, who Aura now knew hated her with a passion. She walked out the door, not caring what the others would think. They didn't think anything at the moment, and only assumed that Aura had to go to the bathroom, or desired to wash up before breakfast, but Aura stood on the front deck and wiped away a single tear.

Link walked towards her, she didn't even notice until he was right behind her. The music was too loud to hear footsteps.

"What's wrong?" He asked in an unexpectedly caring way. Aura stepped away from him.

"Nothing, I'm fine." She said stubbornly.

"Then why were you crying. I'm not an expert, but I know people don't spontaneously burst into tears when they're 'fine'."

"It's stupid."

"And that doesn't matter. People tell me their stupid problems all the time and it tends to make them feel better."

Aura smiled a little.

"I just don't think Arian likes me very much… at all… I wouldn't care if it didn't make me so frustrated…" Aura looked up at Link and realized that he didn't know what she meant. "I'm frustrated because I can't find the reason… I know I'm supposed to know why, but for some reason… I can't remember. I just don't know why he hates me so much…"

"Don't pay attention to anything he does… He just has manly issues… and indigestion…?"

"No… You didn't see him in there. Every time I took a step foreword, he would take one backwards. He looked at me as if I meant to kill him."

"He just uhhh… ummm… indigestion makes you cranky…" Link said shakily. Aura smiled and shook her head. She then walked towards the river, away from him.

"This is why I don't travel with people…" Link said exasperatedly to Navi. The little blue fairy looked back at him.

"And this is why I'm not a psychopathist…" Link arched his eyebrow and looked questioningly at his fairy.

"You mean psychologist?"

"What are you talking about? Of course I'm not crazy… sheesh… you're a psychologist."

"Yes Navi… I'm a psychologist." Link said with obvious sarcasm. He and the fairy then re-entered the house, allowing Aura to have some time to herself.

A/n: Please R&R!